A Thousand Times
by electricmind
Summary: Stiles decides to drag Scott to a school dance in order to have at least one night of teenage normalcy and... Lydia is there. Stydia. One-shot. Set somewhere during the third season.


**A/N: Hi! This is my second story and my first time writing for Teen Wolf, so I'm not sure I'm doing the characters justice, it may be a little OOC. **

**You know when you hear a song and it reminds you of your OTP so much it hurts? Well, there's this song, "1000 Times", by Sara Bareilles, and it just reminds me so much of Stydia that I had to get it out of my chest! I mean, I ship ALL the ships in Teen Wolf, it's impossible not to, but Stydia... they tug at my heartstrings.**

**Sorry if it's not very good. I also apologize in advance for any grammar mistakes, but keep in mind that english is not my first language.**

**One-shot. Set somewhere during third season, before it all went to hell.**

**Hope you like it!**

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Stiles was a wallflower again. With all the crazy going on in his life lately, that was a relief. Between the alpha pack, the sacrifices, the druids, the darach and all that shit, the unchangeable fact that Stiles would be a wallflower at every school event was invigorating, it gave him a sense of stability.

He decided, then, that it had indeed been a good idea to come to this stupid dance, contrary to what Scott said when he suggested a night off from their secret lives. Scott had been wrong, it was a great idea. A night of boring normalcy was just what they needed to forget their reoccurring near death experiences.

Watching his best friend and Alison make googly eyes at each other, between strained conversation and awkward silences, wasn't so bad, considering everything. He'd take awkward every given day. Well, almost every given day.

Stiles bailed on the ex-couple after the awkwardness became too painful and he started rambling, his exit strategy from these kind of situations. That had, predictably, backfired and made everyone uncomfortable. After Scott made his Stiles-please-shut-the-fuck-up face, he left the ex-couple to their own devices, taking his fruity punch with him, bright colored curly straw and all.

He picked a good spot at the back of the crowded gymnasium and there he stayed. It may sound pathetic, but he was comfortable observing everyone. Of course, he would be even more comfortable if he was the one holding a pretty little strawberry blond girl close while they slow danced. But that wasn't him, that was Aiden. Stupid evil twin-wolf Aiden.

In another life, he would go right up to Aiden's face and knock his teeth out for having the audacity of getting near Lydia, let alone touch her. However, since he wasn't in an alternative universe and trying to do that would result in broken bones and/or death, Stiles resigned himself to slurp loudly on his punch and stare at Lydia and Aiden like he could make the werewolf's head explode by sheer force of will. Hey, maybe it would work, right? With all the supernatural shit he witnessed daily, it wasn't that farfetched that he could blow people's heads off with his thoughts.

He was really frustrated, though. He and Lydia had gotten a lot closer after the whole Jackson thing. And just when he thought he might have a tiny bitty chance with her, Aiden showed up and ruined it. Stiles had always been so close, yet so far away from Lydia.

Like right now.

A hundred and five. That was the number of steps between them right now. Yes, he had counted. Counting was something his psychiatrist told him to do often, to help with his ADHD. That was years ago, but he never really stopped doing it. It actually helped, so he counted a lot in his head. The number of steps didn't matter, though. She might as well be five lacrosse fields away, considering the amount of attention she paid him tonight.

Stiles was so lost in his frustration/sulking that he didn't notice Lydia was narrowing her eyes at him. Crap. Now it was too late to pretend he wasn't looking in her direction. Crap. She was now coming his way. He turned around, stumbling a little, and pretended to be deeply engrossed in a chess club poster hanging from the wall he had been leaning against.

"What are you doing?" Lydia asked briskly, still narrowing her eyes at him.

"Wha-? Me? I.. Well, you see, I was thinking about joining the chess club. I don't wanna brag, but I'm actually pretty good at it. I mean, my dad taught me how to play and we used to play a lot when-"

"Stiles." Lydia interrupted him, crossing her arms and arching an eyebrow at him, successfully stopping his rambling and his flailing limbs.

He finally stopped avoiding her eyes and focused on her. The first thing that crossed his mind was that she looked beautiful. She was irritated, but she was still beautiful. So, that's what he said.

"You know… you look beautiful tonight, Lydia." He said lowly.

Lydia softened at his words and uncrossed her arms.

"Why do you keep glaring at me? Stop it, it's annoying." Lydia said by way of answer. She thought it was better to confront him than let him realize how much that simple statement made her blush.

"Glar- I wasn't glaring.. I was.." Lydia gave him a skeptical look "Okay, fine, I was glaring, but I wasn't glaring at _you_. I was obviously glaring at _Aiden_. Come _on_, Lyd, the guy is a douchebag, why are you even with him? He's-"

"_With_ him? I'm not _with_ him. Stop making assumptions about me." She didn't know why, but Lydia felt the need to stress that she wasn't _with_ Aiden. "Besides, even if I _was_ with him, it would be none of your business."

"Well, you guys looked cozy enough while dancing, I mean, what am I supposed to think when he looks at you like you're little red riding hood and he's the big bad wolf? Except in a more sexual way, of course, though, considering that most fairy tales were made as cautionary tales, little red riding hood's story was probably about rapists, so it really is the perfect analogy and-" he rambled on, trying not to show how happy he was that Lydia and Aiden weren't together _together._

"Stiles!" Lydia yelled, throwing her hands in the air before crossing her arms again, taking a deep breath. "First of all, what Aiden and I are or aren't, what we do or don't do is, again, _none_ of your business, so stop butting in and stop. Staring. At us. You have no right to-"

"He. Is. Dangerous." Stiles interrupted, taking a step closer to her. His sudden proximity and the intensity of his voice made the words catch in her throat.

"You know that, Lydia! You have to_ know_ that! You're the smartest person I've ever met, so I _know_ you're aware that he's dangerous." He went on, lowering his head and trying to catch her eyes.

Lydia was determined not to look at him, her eyes on the ground. She couldn't look at him, looking at him would give away her secret. If she let him catch her eyes, he would know how much his concern meant to her.

Stiles went on when she didn't say anything.

"He was sent to watch you and _use_ you to spy on Scott. That's what they _do_, they use people to their advantage. What do you think is gonna happen when they see no more use of you?" he tried to reason with her, he was getting really angry at Lydia's stubbornness and at the fact that she looked bored with this whole conversation. "Would you look at me, Lydia?" he said, raising his voice.

"He's not the only one using someone, Stiles. Did you ever think of _that_? I'm using him too! I've _been_ using him too all this time. To help _you_, to help _all_ of us! My screwed up relationship with him has helped us a great number of times or have you forgotten? It gives us privileged information!" she replied angrily, finally looking him in the eye.

"But you don't need to do that, Lydia, we can find-" he had succumbed to pleading now.

"Well, I need to do _something. _Besides the whole finding dead bodies thing, this is the only way I can help! I won't stand by the sidelines like a clueless little girl anymore, I refuse to do that! I'm tired of being kept in the dark." Lydia said, swallowing hard and trying not to cry.

All of his anger vanished when he saw her eyes glassing over from the tears she was trying so hard not to shed.

"Lyd, you know we were just trying to protect you. We didn't- _I_ didn't want any of this for you." Stiles said softly, trying to contain himself and not take her in his arms and stroke her hair.

"That didn't work out so well, did it? I still had to fight, I just had no idea what I was up against." she said coldly, avoiding his hazel eyes again.

She had no idea how those words had affected him. They just reminded him how he had failed over and over again to protect the girl he loved.

When she finally looked at him and saw the hurt in his eyes, Lydia sighed deeply and spoke again.

"I'm not blaming you, Stiles. I'm not blaming _anyone_. I'm just saying… I just… I _need_ to help. I know you want to protect me, but you can't. None of us can protect ourselves alone. That's why we have to work together. You want to keep me safe, but I want to keep you safe too." She said, trying to make him understand. "You and all of our friends." She added to make it sound less personal.

"I know, but… You can't get hurt, Lydia. You just can't, okay? You have no idea what that would do to me." Stiles lost his inner battle and caught Lydia's hand, looking at her pleadingly.

Looking into his eyes, Lydia remembered Stiles' words from a little while back. _If you die, I will literally go out of my freaking mind. _His words that night gave her feelings she didn't know how to explain, but she gave up on denying their one had ever made her feel as important as Stiles did.

She stared at their hands, which made him start to let go. Gripping his hand tighter, she put the Lydia Martin standard smile on. Little did she know that Stiles could see right through it.

"I won't get hurt. It's different this time. Knowledge is power and now I know more than I did before." She said confidently. "And… we're friends now. We can help each other."

Truth was, Lydia didn't know if 'friends' was the right term to define her relationship with Stiles. She was still trying to sort through her feelings, but she needed to reassure him somehow.

"Right… We're good friends…" Stiles mumbled after staring at the girl he was in love with for a few moments. He didn't mean it, he didn't want to be _just_ her friend.

Lydia let go of his hand and started heading back to Aiden. On an impulse, she turned around and kissed Stiles on the cheek, loving the dumbstruck look on his face when she did it. "We're all gonna be okay, Stiles. If this psycho killer wants to get to you, or any of us, he's gonna have to get through me first. And he probably doesn't know that, but I'm something." She said with determination and with that, she turned and walked away, flipping her mop of hair.

Stiles touched the spot she kissed while he watched her go. "Yes, you are definitely something." He whispered to himself in awe.

Maybe in another life he would stop her from leaving and have the guts to tell her how he felt, but, in this life, it wasn't the right time yet. He couldn't risk losing what he had with her, or, better yet, what he didn't have. She was not his after all. Yet. She wasn't his yet. For now, he resigned himself to release her.

At that moment, he realized that being her friend, being her anything, really, was enough for him. He'd take anything Lydia had to give him. No matter how many times she pushed him away and told him to leave her alone, he'd keep coming back. He'd come back a thousand times, because Lydia… Lydia Martin was worth it.

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**A/N: Review if you feel like making a girl's day!**


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